Thursday, March 19, 2009

Book Prices And Sales

The price of my book at Amazon keeps fluctuating. It’s now £8.57 after being £12.99 yesterday. I’m not sure why that happens. And look at those (currently) eleven new copies with marketplace sellers – discarded review and promo copies? A few of them are based in the USA. Strange, but strange only because I don’t really know how these things work.

Book sales in Europe are up, despite the recession. Seems strange also, but apparently the same thing has happened during previous recessions here.

Rob - stop worrying! The Amazon figures are mostly meaningless. Two sales and you'll see your book climb half a million spaces.

The pricing depends entirely on what the Amazon Pricing Genie decides it should be today - if the APG enjoyed a good night out and an extra couple bottles of red when s/he got home, then your book might find itself discounted until the nurofen kicks in and what passes for reality in APG-land returns.

And those used'n'new from the resellers? They haven't touched a page of your newest baby. They're just a bunch of shysters who jump on every new Amazon listing with a cheap offer of used'n'new - only when somebody's stupid enough to order a copy from them will they order a copy from salt - and then charge about £25 for the p'n'p stuff.

Thus is life ...

BTW - if you want to know where the review copies go, keep an eye on eBay. Just saying ...